Anyone who had taken a look at the recent record between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid knew what was coming. Two early goals killed the tie before halftime, as Carvalho and Ozil gave Real a two goal cushion they never relinquished. Earlier Barcelona had impressed in a 1-3 win over Getafe and Villarreal maintained their push at the top with a thumping win over Athletic Bilbao.
Sevilla 2 - 0 Valencia - Negredo And Alfaro Sink Ten-Men Valencia
Gregorio Manzano is very much a man who lives by the sword and dies by the sword. A manager who is as tactically astute as they come, it’s no surprise he is known in the game as ‘El profesor’. Manzano almost got Mallorca into this seasons Champions League, while he has turned things around at Sevilla since the departure of Antonio Alvarez. Tonight, aided by their managers risky second-half tactics, Sevilla banished the memories of their 5-0 Camp Nou nightmare last week to hand Valencia a deserved 2-0 defeat.
Unai Emerys Valencia side had travelled to the Sanchez Pizjuan desparate to end a run of disappointing results in the league which has seen them drop like a stone from the Liga summit. They are now four games without a win in the league, and after referee Iturralde Gonzalez had harshly sent off Turkish midfielder Mehmet Topal on 25 minutes, ‘Los Che’ were always going to be hard pushed to get anything from this match.
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Real Madrid ensured that Atletico Madrid’s shocking derby record would carry on into 2011 as two early goals from Ricardo Carvalho and Mesut Ozil sentenced Quique Sanchez Flores’s team to yet another defeat at the hands of their eternal rivals. Just like they had done in Milan, Jose Mourinhos men burst out of the blocks with Atletico struggling to get a foothold in the game. And the ‘Rojiblancos’ were made to pay for their slow start as centre-back Carvalho popped up out of nowhere to waltz through a static defence and slot past birthday boy David De Gea.
Atletico were rocking, and they were still coming to terms with going behind when Mesut Ozil scored the second. Real Madrid won a free-kick out wide on the right, with Ozil curling a delicious cross-come-shot that left De Gea rooted to the spot. At that point it appeared as if Atleti were going to be handed a thrashing, but instead of pushing for the killer third, Real Madrid began to sit back on their lead which allowed Atletico a route back into the match.
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